Joan Lonergan is the Broker/Owner of Coldwell Banker Village Green Realty. Her company is the largest real estate agency in Ulster and Greene Counties, NY, with 100 agents and support staff. Lonergan has served on a number of local boards in her community, including Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. She lives in Woodstock with her husband Jim.
feel responsible for the people that work for me and I always thought that if I didn’t set it up so that this could continue with the same company culture, with someone that can move it forward, the business would fail. It is my goal to be fully confident that there is a total transition before I step away.”
Balancing a Creative Passion with Work-Life Reality Lonergan opened her real estate offices to artists in Woodstock from the beginning; it was a way for her to maintain her commitment to the arts community, speak to her artistic
training and also make a living. “I get a chance to offer more than just real estate to my community. My love of art has remained a constant throughout my life. All of our offices are galleries where I exhibit my own photography and the work of other local artists.”
Mexican highlands. She rents a studio, immerses herself in the city’s vibrant artistic community and devotes time to her ceramic projects. In the future, once she’s certain her real estate company has transitioned into capable hands, Lonergan hopes to spend more time in Mexico.
Since 2010, Lonergan has served as a board member at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, which offers one of the oldest continuing artist-inresidence programs. “I would love to leave a legacy with this organization of developing a ceramics program that is great for the community and for artists. I love not only the medium, but also that I get to give something that will enhance the lives of a whole bunch of other people.”
“I have found that going away for a month gives me that concentrated time to do my work,” she says. “But I don’t think I have balanced that side of my life as well as I could have. When you have a business that you’re passionate about, the other things have a tendency to take a backseat, but you have to make the time for them one way or another. I think I’ll have to reinvent myself a bit when I retire, you know, because when I walk out of the door in Woodstock people know me as a real estate broker, and so going someplace new and reestablishing myself as an artist is what I see for the future.” n
As far as her personal projects, Lonergan currently spends one month of the year in San Miguel de Allende nestled in the central
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